Wonder
by Ayla Pascal
Summary: "For Hermione, the wizarding world was a place of wonder."


**Author Notes**: Thank you to aigooism for the beta!

For Hermione, the wizarding world was a place of wonder. It wasn't just a place where she belonged; it was _the_ place where she belonged. She could still remember being an awkward and odd child. Not only was she the smartest one in class, but strange things always happened around her as well. Once, a bin upturned itself on the head of one of her classmates who had been teasing her at the time. He swore up and down that she had done it, but that was impossible! She had been halfway across the room at the time. Of course, once she got her Hogwarts letter, it all began to make sense. She'd felt like she didn't belong in her school because she really _didn't belong_. The simple piece of parchment suddenly made the world seem bigger and the glitter of magic was like a siren's call.

For Draco, the wizarding world was his _whole_ world. He'd never known anything else.

* * *

><p>Hermione wasn't sure when she began to see Draco differently. Maybe it was when they started working together at the Ministry. Maybe it was the first time she ended up having dinner with him after a long day at the office. Their case at the time had seemed both impossible and ridiculous. Somebody had tampered with the official Auror files. Most of the files had spent the entire week whizzing about over their heads. The entire incident was a public relations nightmare, not to mention a security breach. The files usually moved too quickly, but there was always a chance that somebody could read a piece of confidential information as it flew over their heads.<p>

It was during that case when Hermione realised that working with Draco wasn't that bad. They got along quite well. He surprised her sometimes with what he knew. Of course, she was probably only surprised because of Ron and Harry; neither of them were exactly the literary sort.

"You're not the only person who's read _Hogwarts, A History_." There was a look of amusement in his eyes. "It wasn't a bad book."

Hermione opened her eyes in mock horror. "You've only read it once?"

Draco laughed. "Twice."

Hermione couldn't help grinning. "I've read it three times."

"Careful, Granger," Draco murmured. "You might end up enjoying it."

There was something in Draco's dry remarks that appealed to her. He wasn't demonstrative with his emotions, but that worked because she didn't particularly enjoy being around overly emotional people. It was strange, Hermione reflected. She had disliked him for almost seven years back when they were at Hogwarts. She had wanted to _hate_him, but there was no way she was going to stoop down to the level of the Death Eaters. Back then, he was an arrogant, prejudiced bastard. But he'd changed over the years.

Hermione was surprised to realise that she quite liked the person he'd become.

* * *

><p>Hermione had never particularly enjoyed mixing her work and personal life. The entire concept had seemed fraught with danger. She had seen plenty of couples break up and then end up unable to work together. There were no regulations against it, but it had never seemed like something she would chance. She loved her job too much. There was something exhilarating about being given the cases that the other teams were unable to solve.<p>

Pity though, she thought as she watched Draco frown slightly as he read. His right hand was holding the parchment down while his left hand aimlessly levitated a paperweight off the desk.

"You're staring."

Hermione blinked and focused. "No, I'm not."

"Then you need coffee because you look like you're staring," Draco said. He pushed his chair back and let the paperweight fall lightly onto the pile of parchments. "Black, two sugars?"

Hermione rubbed her eyes. "Make it three," she said. She watched as Draco waved the coffee pot over. "I probably was staring. I feel like my eyes are falling out of my head." She was daydreaming about Draco. The lack of coffee _had_to have something to do with it.

"Same," Draco admitted as he grabbed the coffee pot to pour himself a cup. "There's been a lot of cases lately."

"A lot of unusual cases," Hermione agreed.

* * *

><p>"This is just embarrassing," Draco grumbled as he brushed off his robes. Flecks of glitter fell onto the floor. He scrunched up his nose and pursed his lips. "Positively mortifying. Why do we always get the ridiculous cases? And how come you're not covered in this stuff?"<p>

"I stepped out of the way in time," Hermione pointed out as she reached over to pick a large piece of glitter out of his hair. "And if you recall, there was a double homicide just last month."

Draco sighed. "But before that, there were the flying files. And before that ..."

"I thought we said that we'd never mention _that incident_again." Hermione still woke up some mornings wanting milk and kibble. She sometimes had to check her hands during the day to make sure that they hadn't turned into paws. "Of course, you did make an adorable kitten."

"As did you."

Hermione was about to reach over to brush the remainder of the glitter off the back of Draco's robes when her hand stopped in midair. He was giving her an odd look. Her throat suddenly felt dry. "Of course I did," she said briskly.

Draco laughed softly. "Positively gorgeous."

Hermione could feel the hair stand up on the back of her neck. "Nonsense. You were the cutest one by far. Didn't those kids end up cooing over you?"

Draco shuddered. "Don't remind me."

* * *

><p>"You're transferring?" Hermione repeated incredulously. She really hadn't expected Draco to actually leave the unit. Of course he had complained about the caseload, but then again, so did she. She thought that they worked well together. "You've only been here a few months."<p>

"I wanted to tell you earlier," Draco said uncomfortably.

Hermione waved a hand. "Don't be ridiculous. You didn't need to tell me." She bit the inside of her cheek. She had wanted to be told though. Internal transfers only needed to be approved by each section chief. As Draco's partner, she technically didn't need to know.

"We had so much on. You know, first the _incident_and then the murders..."

"I do remember our last few cases." Hermione's tone came out sharper than she'd intended.

"I didn't mean it that way," Draco protested. "I just wanted to work the same cases for a while. This job, I know you love it, but it's exhausting. Every case is so different. We've ended up in the middle of a snowstorm fighting off paperclips before."

"That was once."

"That's just my point." Draco shrugged. "We never get the same kind of case twice."

Hermione sighed. She couldn't help remembering her last partner who had said pretty much the exact same thing when she'd left. "So where're you going now?"

"Right now, I thought I'd go and get some lunch," Draco said. He hesitated. "I thought you could join me."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Where are you doing to be working?"

"Homicide, I think," Draco said. "There's an opening in that unit. I wasn't joking about lunch though. I'm quite hungry and I thought we could grab a bite."

Hermione considered it. She wasn't sure she really wanted to have lunch with Draco. After all, he was leaving in a few weeks. It was going to be one of their last lunches together. But then again, she did enjoy his company. "Sure," she said finally. "Just let me finish up this paperwork."

* * *

><p>Over the next few weeks, Hermione found that Draco seemed to find an excuse to come over and talk to her almost every day. At first, it was so that he could clear out his desk, and then it was so that he could grab his files, but he kept on visiting even after everything had been moved over.<p>

"What is it this time?" Hermione asked, barely hiding a grin. She'd begun to find herself looking forward to his daily visits.

"Left my stapler," Draco said as he reached over and took a red stapler off her desk.

"Oi!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's mine."

Draco flipped the stapler and showed her the label.

"It belongs to the unit," Hermione grumbled. "You're not supposed to be labelling unit property. Aren't they giving you stationary where you are?"

"I'm not a fan of the staplers over there," Draco said smoothly. "They're blue."

Hermione bit back a laugh. She'd begun to wonder why Draco was coming over so much. Could there be another reason? She'd realised over the last few weeks that she still enjoyed his company even though they weren't working together any more. In fact, she found herself missing his quips. Looking up, Hermione caught an odd look in Draco's eyes that made a shiver run down her spine.

"I'd better be getting back," Draco said quickly.

Hermione watched as he stepped away from her desk. "Wait."

Draco stopped and looked at her quizzically.

"I thought..." Hermione licked her lips. She couldn't believe what she was saying. "I thought we could maybe have dinner sometime. To catch up."

"I'd love to," Draco said. The smile on his face made her feel warm all over. "My place? I do make a lovely pie."

Hermione laughed. "You're forgetting that you've already told me that you're terrible at cooking."

"Too bad," Draco said. "It'll have to be Hogsmeade then." He picked up his stapler. "I'll see you tonight."

* * *

><p>Hermione stretched out lazily on her bed.<p>

"Stop moving," Draco grumbled. "Trying to sleep here."

"Oh shush," Hermione told him. She still couldn't believe that they had ended up back at her place last night. She really had intended it to be a dinner as friends, but somehow she had ended up almost dragging him inside her apartment. Her face reddened as she saw her robes lying just outside the doorway. "We need to be at work soon anyway."

"No, we don't," Draco said. There was a trace of smugness in his voice. "My new job doesn't need me in until nine."

Hermione sat up slightly, a frown on her face. A sudden thought just occurred to her. "Did you quit being my partner at work so that... well, this could happen?" She had always made it a rule of hers not to date co-workers. Of course, she hadn't told any of her co-workers that, but there was still a chance Draco could have figured it out.

Draco's hand stopped abruptly from where it was drawing lazy circles over her bare stomach. "No," he said flatly.

"I just thought..." Hermione trailed off.

"Hey," Draco said as he propped himself up on an elbow. "You asked me out. Plus, you know that I like my current job a lot more. Well, not that my previous job didn't have perks." He winked at her.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I only asked you out because you kept on coming over and stealing my stationary."

"Well, I suppose I'd better come over and take a few notebooks next week then," Draco drawled. "Otherwise those reservations at Diagon Alley will go to waste."

Hermione leaned over and kissed him. "We wouldn't want that, would we?"

* * *

><p>Hermione loved her job, her apartment and almost everything about the wizarding world. There was something about magic that made life easier and more complicated at the same time. She still felt a thrill whenever she levitated a cup of coffee over to her desk or when she saw Draco flick his wand to make the dishes wash themselves. And, of course, there was Draco himself. This was a relationship she had never intended to happen, and – if she admitted it to herself – would have probably never happened if they'd continued to work together.<p>

Draco loved the wizarding world. But as he looked over at Hermione who was curled up at his side with a book cradled in her arms, he wondered if perhaps he loved her more.

-fin


End file.
